Recently I told you about my trip to Missouri Star Quilt Co. in Hamilton, MO. If you are a quilter, I have no doubt you already knew about Missouri Star – if not though, you may wonder how such a small town could support a fabric store enough for it to win the national Small Business Persons of The Year Award and a trip to the White House. Well, in this day and age you don’t have to rely on your neighbors for business success – you have the internet. Early on, Missouri Star started their own YouTube.com channel featuring quilting tutorials taught by Jenny Doan. Jenny’s cheerful, no-nonsense teaching style helped millions of quilters learn new techniques and soon she was a YouTube star!
Today, Jenny is still hosting quilting and sewing tutorials online, however, Missouri Star has recently expanded their selection of videos with the additions of two new channels: Man Sewing with Rob Appel and Crafty Gemini Creates with Vanessa Vargas Wilson. Rob and Vanessa are both incredibly talented instructors and they bring a new energy to Missouri Star’s tutorial offerings. Man Sewing features projects with a masculine look like; customized backpacks, cell phone charging stations and quilts. This is sure to bring more men into the sewing world – or at least provide a lot of gift ideas for the men in our lives.
I’ve been lucky enough to travel up to Hamilton to film videos with Jenny, Rob and Vanessa. I’ve had so much fun working with the Missouri Star family, they make filming easy and fun. My first video was with Jenny, where we worked on a Crossroads Denim quilt (see the picture above!), then I joined forces with Rob on Man Sewing. Most recently I worked with Vanessa on a project from my Vintage Notions book.
Crafty Gemini Creates offer accessories tutorials such as headbands, purses and jewelry organizers. She also ventures into non-sewing territory with crochet projects. Vanessa has been teaching virtually for years and has her own website The Crafty Gemini. Recently, Vanessa has been using Indygo Junction’s embroidery book Stitched Style in her new Embroidery Basics series on her channel. She has also been working with my Crossroads Denim and Vintage Made Modern fabric lines in her projects. I recently spoke with Vanessa about my time with Indygo Junction in the sewing industry which you can listen to here.
